Back in 1977 and on into the 1980s, there was no thought given to canning beer. A very few of the craft breweries were bottling their beer but no one was canning it. The high cost associated with the procurement of a canning line prohibited this concept and most craft brewers (brewpubs) were content to sell their beer in house while others that were operating as microbreweries were content to continue kegging and bottling for the retail market. As the movement to better beer grew, a few craft brewers decided that to grow themselves, they needed to can their beer. Since affordable canning lines were not yet available, the craft brewers either canned by hand or used some other available equipment to accomplish this task. Some craft brewers decided that the most cost effective way to accomplish this task was to contract the operation to another brewer who had the capability to perform the task. Then in 2002, the Cask Brewing Systems, Inc. of Alberta, Calgary, Canada designed a canning line (small canner, seamer and six packer) that was affordable to the craft brewer and the canning craze was underway.